by Mat Churchill

In recent days both pollies vying for the job of PM have budgeted millions of dollars to Australia's struggling tourism industry. 

Last week Julia Gillard announced tourism funding of $46 million. In Cairns, Tony Abbott trumped that by promising $90 million (and adding it's "not a huge amount of money").

Leichhardt is a marginal seat, and one in which the success or failure of tourism campaigns affects a massive proportion of its population.

At The Newsport we've covered, and asked you to comment on many of the campaigns that affect your lives. And it seems Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Airlines fame hasn't shied away from airing his views either.

"Australia's the country I most enjoy visiting," he said in an interview with Business Spectator. “You name it, Australia has it. So if they want to use me to plug Australia, I'd be delighted to do so because I can't think of another country I'd rather visit.

“I arrived in Australia yesterday, I'm going back home tomorrow and I'm going to be back here in two weeks' time and that's 24-hour journeys both times. So I'm sold and I think Australia's a very, very easy sell. I'm surprised that the advertising people can't get the message across.”

And it's not just Knights of the Realm that seem underwhelmed by our tourism achievements.

The Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organisation, Taleb Rifai said "Australia has lived for a long time . . . happy with its isolation. That's not going to work any more."

A blog on The Age drew many contributions, most of which blamed Australia's hefty holiday price tag and generally poor service for its drop in visitors.

One blogger wrote "Australia is the best place in the world, but we're not THAT much better that people are willing to spend triple as much to enjoy her fruits."

And another: "Yep...with very few exceptions, holidaying in Oz is expensive and offers very poor levels of service. Much much cheaper to fly to Thailand or Indonesia and live it up in luxury resorts with private pools, etc, than get a shabby room here.

So let's put the spotlight on Port Douglas.

What do you think of our affordability on the world stage? And does the service offered here hit the mark, or leave a lot to be desired?